Medical Exams Set for Medicis of Old

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: December 25, 2003

ROME, Dec. 24 — A team of Italian and American scientists will exhume the remains of 49 members of the Medici clan, the powerful Renaissance merchant family that ruled Tuscany, to study what they ate and what illnesses they suffered.

The two-year project is unusual because it concerns an elite group of people for whom there is already a vast amount of documentation. That information can be compared with any new scientific findings, researchers say.

"Nobody has ever worked on a royal population," said Bob Brier of the C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University, a mummy expert who is one of the study's lead researchers.

"In a sense, we're looking at the lifestyle of the rich and famous."

In July, the scientists will exhume 49 bodies buried in the Medici Chapel in Florence, take DNA samples from hair and skeletons, perform CAT scans and X-rays of intact mummies, and sample whatever soft tissues remain.